Working with a fulfillment company requires extensive communication to ensure that everything runs efficiently. Whether they are simply providing customer service to your team or handling a more extensive function such as direct communication with your end customers, the quality of this communication can make or break the entire fulfillment experience. What separates customer service quality in fulfillment companies is paying attention to various details you may not think about until they happen. It’s why you should look carefully at your contract before working with a fulfillment center and see how they approach communication with you. Or, discussing it over with the manager can give you an idea.

Here are some things to consider so that you can avoid having any difficulties with the service provided by your fulfillment center.

Proactive vs. Reactive Responses in Customer Service

You can quickly determine which center has the best approach to customer service based on whether they do things proactively or reactively. In the latter case, the support team may only contact you when sending you a bill, or responding when you have a problem. Using a proactive method, on the other hand, is where they’ll let you know in advance about specific issues, improvements, or savings that will benefit your company. Always be sure to ask if the fulfillment center has a proactive support team and what frequency they’ll proactively reach out to you. Another good way to determine if they offer proactive customer service is to discuss the technology systems that they use and have them provide examples of how it helps them identify potential issues, track ongoing performance, and manage email and telephone communication for your company. Ideally, you should always have a symbiotic relationship with your fulfillment provider where communication happens frequently.

Support Staff Availability

Most people have experienced poor customer service where you have to spend 10 minutes to get a hold of a live person, get put on hold for extended periods of time, or deal with representatives that aren’t able to handle the issue at hand. The same potential negative scenarios exist with your fulfillment operation unless you ensure that they have adequate support staff, training, and availability. The stakes are even higher if they are providing any support to your end customers. “Statistics show that when a company fails to respond properly to customer concerns, it all reflects badly on you, the retailer. A lousy customer response in dealing with a return could lose you a customer for life, including getting highly unfavorable reviews on influential places like Yelp,” according to Max Zitney, who runs Ships-A-Lot in Warren, Ohio.

It’s imperative you choose a fulfillment center that has support available during the appropriate business hours of your company. Most importantly, you need to have multiple contact methods as well to deal with an emergency. Methods of emergency correspondence could include text messaging, direct phone calls, using service such as Slack for transparent conversations, or standard email.

Mobile communication is equally essential, especially when you need to travel for business and can’t visit the fulfillment facility in person.

Working With Account Managers on Communication

The account manager in your fulfillment center should keep communication going on a regular basis, including messaging you at agreed upon intervals to update you about what’s going to occur. Having daily or weekly briefings confirms which items are getting shipped, which items get handled on returns, and details on warehouse procedures. If there’s any changes in technology or other procedures, the account manager should let you know so you’re aware of any slight downtime during transitions.

In addition, you should get monthly reports from this manager detailing everything from accuracy, speed, to savings they’re giving you. When the fulfillment center can save you money through more enhanced technology, it only helps you in a time when customers expect deliveries yesterday rather than today.